The invention relates to a portable closed wound suction device and more particularly, to such a device which may be worn by persons following outpatient surgery and which provides suction to remove fluids from a closed wound in a rigid container having no movable parts which could be tampered with by the patient.
Due to the large increase in recent years in outpatient surgery, there has developed a substantial need for portable collection chambers which may be used with a surgical drain to permit the efflux of blood, serum and body secretions from the operative site to the exterior of the patient. Heretofore, such collection chambers could not be used effectively for outpatient care for the reason that such devices were too bulky to be portable or such devices incorporated movable parts, valves or the like which could be tampered with by the patient so as to render the device inoperative or even to cause body fluids secreted from the wound to be forced back into the body. Thus, there exists a need for a truly portable closed wound suction device which is constructed in such a way that the proper operation of the device cannot be interfered with in any way by the patient.
Typically, prior art devices which are designed for portable closed wound suction are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,115,138 and 3,376,868. Such devices provide a movable wall or container formed as a bellows which are adapted to be compressed to create a suction therein as the device returns to its original configuration. However, if such devices are accidently compressed by the patient when partially filled, the potentially contaminated body fluids which have been drawn from the wound site will be forced back into the wound area. Other devices such as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,900,029 or 3,774,811 are too bulky to be considered adapted to be worn by a patient as a portable unit in the home environment after outpatient surgery.
Numerous attempts have been made in the prior art to provide a reliable suction collection chamber which could be activated by the surgeon following surgery and carried by the patient in the hospital while the wound is healing, but such prior art devices have not met all of the essential criteria set forth hereinbefore, that is, providing a readily portable unit which is formed as a rigid container with no valves, bulbs or movable parts which can be tampered with by the patient.